Today the news came quite late to me, Len Sassaman lost his life.
I was shocked, I have met Len and Meredith about 6 months ago, they where visiting Utrecht for a crypto (of-course) meetup. Between the meets they had some time to visit the local hackerspace and have some breakfast. I remembered our conversations as intense and awesome. Len inspired me to go on with projects which seem to be endless or almost impossible. I don’t think I’m lying if I say Len was this for a lot of hackers: somebody who was different and a source of inspiration.

Although I wasn’t in contact very much with Len lately, I have chosen to write this blog and let people know what a great guy he was, please feel free to use the comment field as a condolence register.

All the best to Len’s wife, family, friends and everybody else who knew Len.

The world lost another hero….

Rest In Peace Len

*** Update ***
For those who would like to say goodbye to Len, Saturday 9th of July 12:00 (noon) at “De Jacht cemetery in Heverlee” in Belgium there will be the ceremony. Meredith is inviting everybody who would like to come.

8 comments

Even though I barely talked to Len and only via twitter, he made quite an impression on me, a really intelligent person and always welcoming you or wanting to help you/provide feedback. I am busy with a project and wanted his feedback, I guess this will never happen

Even though the direct interactions with Len have been few and far between, he was always an inspiration. His work in the community, with the community, has tremendous value and in his memory we should treasure it and make sure that it is further developed, holding through to the beliefs and values Len put in it.

Last time I saw Len, was when we had a pre-con dinner in Berlin a few weeks ago. Standing outside, We discussed his plans now that his PhD program was nearing an end. There were several options he seemed equally enthusiastic about. I was confident that there was so much more awesome stuff we were gonna see flowing from Len’s crazy smart head. He was, besides that brilliant researcher, also a very likeable person and easy to talk to. I would say that everybody needs to be a little bit like Len.

The fact that this has all come to an abrupt end is hard to accept.

Condolences go out to his wife, his family, his friends. There are no words that can relieve the pain you’re going through. I’m terribly sorry this happened.